Humanverse

Nicholas vs Nicholle

American parents have registered 929,199 Nicholases since 1880, against 1,837 Nicholles. Nicholas is still ahead, with 3,123 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nicholas against Nicholle, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nicholas Nicholle

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Nicholas has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1970, when Nicholas had 2,711 and Nicholle had 58.

Side by side

  Nicholas Nicholle
Total US births 929,1991,837
Most in one year 29,21673
Babies in 2025 3,123under 5
Estimated living today 843,0001,800
Median age today 3140
Peak year 19951994
Best rank 7th boys1,929th girls
Rank in 2025 112thunranked
First recorded 18801966
Girls / boys 3,152 / 926,0471,837 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Nicholles alive today are over 40; half the Nicholases are over 31. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nicholas and Nicholle.